MONTICELLO, Minn. -- Like many new fathers, Bob Calcagno can barely remember life without his 2 year old son Vico.

But he also can't forget the day his boy was born.

"What we went through that night should have never happened," Bob said.

Bob's wife, Claudia, was just 36 years old and in perfect health when she had Vico in January 2008. Living in Albertville, Bob says New River Medical Center in Monticello was both close and competent, told their birthing center delivered 50 babies a month.

"I did feel confident," said Bob, recalling the day he and Claudia went to the hospital for her induction. "I was walking into a hospital. I had no reason to assume there would be an issue."

Yet just two hours after Vico was born, Claudia began to hemorrhage, her doctors asking immediately for blood. But the hospital said it didn't have it, and by the time it arrived, it was too late. Claudia had lost her life. The family's attorneys say it was later found the hospital had made an error. It had the blood all along.

"They failed this family," said Kathleen Flynn Peterson, who represented the Calcagno family in a civil case against New River Medical Center. "(Claudia) bled to death, and the hospital had the blood that would save her life sitting right there in the refrigerator."

New River says in a statement that while its "thoughts and sympathy go out to the Calcagno family," it's "disappointed" with the verdict, and insists hospital is both "safe" and "well equipped."

Bob says the hospital has yet to admit its mistake, errors he says stole Claudia's life, and a mother from his little boy.

"That's the hardest part," Bob said. "Knowing that she didn't have to die."

A Wright County jury deliberated just four hours before awarding Bob Calcagno $4.6 million in damages.

Bob says he filed the suit as a way to urge patients to be proactive, and urge hospitals to be better prepared and to follow procedure.